Kihā́mmic/Phonology
This appendix describes the phonological system of the Kihā́mmic language. See also IPA for Kihā́mmic Consonants Consonants phonemes Allophones *The labio-dental nasal ɱ is an allophone of m before the labio-dental fricatives f and v. An example of this is "á''mfô''" aɱfo ("mud"). *The velar nasal ŋ is an allophone of n before the velar plosives k and g. An example of this is "ongá" ɒŋga ("fingernail"). The velar nasal is also produced when a word terminates with /ng/, for example in "tsíng" t͡sɪŋ ("jewel"). *The voiced glottal fricative ɦ is an allophone of h between vowels, before j and after k. *The velarised alveolar lateral approximant ɫ is an allophone of l before another consonant, as in "gəltá" gəɫta ("mortar"). *The alveolar approximant ɹ only occurs at the starts words and is an allophone of the alveolar tap ɾ. *The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative θ and the voiced dental non-sibilant fricative ð are allophones. Their occurrence is often unpredictable. For example, "zū́þômô" zuːθomo ("smooth"), but "kaiþá" kaɪ̯ða ("truth"). *Both t and d may be pronounced as the dental plosives t̪ and d̪. *The bilabial plosives p and b may also, but less frequently, be produced as dental plosives, p̪ and b̪ (or ȹ and ȸ). *Rarer still is the dental nasal n̪ which is an allophone of n. Gemination *Gemination of consonants occurs almost exclusively due to the two digraphs /kg/ and /gk/ - kː and gː respectively. *The only other place it occurs in Standard Kihā́mmic is when the last consonant in a given word and the first consonant in the following word are the same fricative, nasal or plosive. Such as "án zápôvan núk" zapovanːʊk ("a sharp rock"). Syllabic consonants Kihā́mmic has seven syllabic consonants, l̩, ɫ̩, m̩, n̩, ɾ̩, z̩ and s̩. There are even a few words that do not have vowels in at all: *''blg'' bl̩g (key) *''grg'' gɾ̩g (bubble) *''gzkl'' gz̩kɫ̩ (spring to water) Vowels Chart of vowels Notes *In Kihā́mmic vowel modifications do not occur. Nasalisation does not occur, vowels are never reduced and vowels do not undergo assimilations. *In Standard Kihā́mmic the close-mid front unrounded vowel e only appears at the ends of words. However, for some speakers it replaces the open-mid front unrounded vowel ɛ entirely. For example,"Zún klûré, ékô hób aná mūskôá" ("One day I'll have a son") would normally be pronounced kluɾe ɛko hɒb ana muːskoa, but some speakers may pronounce it kluɾe eko hɒb ana muːskoa instead. *There are also a few speakers (albeit fewer than above) for whom the open front unrounded vowel a may be pronounced as a near-open front unrounded vowel æ. *Some speakers may also pronounce the vowel "ā''" as aː, äː or ɐː rather than ɑː. This doesn't often occur where speakers pronounce "''a" as æ. Vowel length In Kihā́mmic vowel length and is partially independent of stress and intonation. It may in fact change the meaning of a word, compare "lûgá" luga ("brush") and "lūgá" luːga ("louse"). Diphthongs Kihā́mmic has fourteen diphthongs: nine falling (aɪ̯, aʊ̯, au̯, eɪ̯, eʊ̯, eu̯, oɪ̯, oʊ̯, ou̯) and five rising (wa, wɛ, we, wɪ and wi). The w◌ in rising diphthongs can also be analysed as u̯◌. If a diphthong is stressed the first vowel in the grapheme acquires the stress mark. Hence "bevrói" bɛvˈɾoɪ̯ (redo) and not "bevroí" or "bevróí". Category:Kihā́mmic